It’s been 2½ years since I took my Yachtmaster Coastal and I felt ready to move on to the offshore qualification. Last time, I made the conscious decision to take it in unfamiliar waters so as to force me to be thorough in checking out the local hazards. Continue reading Yachtmaster Offshore Exam
Tag Archives: man overboard
Drilling it in to us
Well, although there wasn’t much wind today we did a fair amount of practising. After leaving the marina we practised mooring up on a training pontoon (so called pontoon bashing) a couple of times, which gave the boys a chance to take turns in stepping off and get the lines secured.
Then we moved back out on to the Solent and tacked repeatedly. Although the wind was very calm it was very repetitive and again a chance to practice something over and over again.
Finally, we did a number of man overboard drills (which freaked Helen out a bit!) – our fastest time was about 3m 55s.
Then into Lymington’s Berthon Marina to check out what was easily easily the poshest shower block in the Solent.
New crew
Started off with a lie in due the previous evening night sail.
Completed the man overboard drills under sail and then headed back to the marina where I sat a 3 hour paper on theory (general paper and navigation).
Dropped off 2 crew and picked up 2 more for the weekend.
Steak & Ringwood Ale pie for dinner.
Night sailing exercise completed
We spent the morning and afternoon sailing on the Solent practicing man over board drills under sail. Then sailed up Southampton Water for tea and pilotage planning at 4pm.
We’ve just come into Gosport after 5.5 hours night sailing. Starting from the River Ichen, down Southampton Water, up to Hamble and back again then out onto the Solent back to home base.
The river work was quite tense due to large number of moving vessels and difficulty identifying lights with so many shore lights to confuse.
On the Solent we were far more isolated and sailing was very relaxed plus with clear skies the stars very visible.